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Let me tell you about the one where Tim Cook took a shower...

Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Satya Nadella walk into a bar.

No, that's not going to work. Let's try this:

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Mark Zuckerberg.

Oh, go away.

Please forgive me, but I've suddenly learned something about humor I never expected. Well, never expected from Stanford University.

I think of it as a place where people are grotesquely self-confident and self-absorbed -- even on a golf course. I think of it as a place that may have been slow to embrace the teaching of ethics in certain quarters.

I don't think of it as a place where some of the softer sides of management leap to the fore.

Yet here are Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas ready to disabuse me. They believe a crucial element of modern leadership is, oh really, humor.

Aaker is the Stanford Graduate School of Business General Atlantic Professor and Coulter Family Fellow for 2020-21. I don't think it's Ann Coulter's people, but you never know. Bagdonas is a lecturer in management at Stanford Business School.

Together, they not only teach humor to the evidently dry leaders of the future but have written a new book,Tell Us A Joke, Tim Cook, You Sanctimonious Twerp.

I'm sorry, that's not quite right. It's called Humor, Seriously. Why Humor Is A Secret Weapon in Business and Life. Seriously.

Humor. Surely that's the first trait you associate with Zuckerberg, Dorsey, Nadella, Cook, Sundar Pichai, and just about every other tech leader today.

They make you feel at ease with a quip, rather than want to furiously scratch some part of your face. Whenever they speak, there's a tumult of titters and a groundswell of guffaws. Their one-liners are the stuff of legend.

Actually, one can only imagine -- and one has heard from those who know -- that their leadership styles drift toward the intense, rather than the innately cheery.

Oh, but look at the research Aaker and Bagdonas presented in an excerpt from their book published in Fast Company.

Are you aware that those who use humor at work are seen as more competent and confident -- and enjoying higher status too?

Can you possibly believe that employees who say their leader is humorous -- even the slightest hint -- rate them 27% more motivating? Employees say they're 15% happier in their jobs if they have an even vaguely funny leader. (I'm not thinking Larry Ellison. How about you?)

It could be, of course, that our tech titans are, in the cocoon of their own Zoom meetings and Polynesian hideaways, cracking even wiser than they're pontificating.

It could be that I'm dreaming here.

Aaker and Bagdonas insist humor isn't just confined to leaders personally. Why, it makes teams more productive. Including Microsoft ones, I shouldn't wonder.

The authors say: "Teams that laugh together before trying to solve a creativity challenge are more than twice as likely to succeed versus those who don't laugh together first."

Were they all laughing while they created the iPhone? Yes, they were. Even Steve Ballmer thought it was funny. The iPad? Ach, that came out of a drinking game at the office when someone broke the screen off a MacBook.

As for AirPods, someone put a couple of broken bits of plastic in their ears as a joke and an engineer cried: "Genius! That's it! Crappy earrings that double as headphones!"

Aaker and Bagdonas' book came out last week. I wonder if Cook was the first to reach for it.

That was a joke.

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Apple and Facebook have one startling thing missing. Stanford is trying to teach it - ZDNet

One of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, Patrisse Cullors, is joining the Boulder-based Motus Theater Thursday evening to read the story of an undocumented immigrant.

Cullors is the latest prominent American to participate in "Shoebox Stories: UndocuAmerica."

The Democratic freshmen are teaming up to tell the real stories of undocumented immigrants as part of a free online series for the Motus Theater, a Boulder-based nonprofit that creates dialogue around issues through creative expression.

She will read the personal story of Armando Peniche and his experience with racial profiling and the dangers that inflammatory rhetoric toward Mexican immigrants poses to him and his American-born son.

Cullors will be joined at 6 p.m. on Zoom by Afro-Latino musical theater star Carlos Heredia and slam poet Dominique Christina, whoholds five national poetry slam titles, including winning the National Poetry Championship and two Women of the World Slam Championships.

The series' programs are free.Registerby clicking here.

Joey Bunch: "Im not prone to say much about TV, but heres something worth talking about thats significant to Colorado and significant to the country: compassion in patriotism."

The series' first six episodes have featured, respectively, Colorado U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse and Jason Crow, actor John Lithgow, musicians Neil Young and Yo_Yo Ma, activist Gloria Steinem, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and celebrity chef Jos Andrs, who conservative commentator Ann Coulter called a "nut foreigner" in December over the New York chef's request that the Biden administration create a U.S. hunger relief czar.

On March 11, the series will hear from Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo.

After Thursday night's reading, Cullors and Peniche will talk about the stories of police brutality survivors, followed by a discussion with Nana Gyamfi, executive director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and Sydelle OBrien, an undocumented Black activist.

Miller Hudson: "Listening to their stories, which were filled with hope and aspiration far more than any anger or recrimination, the complexity and injustice of their undocumented status became apparent."

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Boulder's Motus Theater to hear about immigration from Black Lives Matter founder - coloradopolitics.com

Former first lady Michelle Obamas winter CSA came courtesy of current first lady Jill Biden and the White House garden,which Obama originally planted. Obama posted a picture of the basket on Instagram, writing, So thankful for this beautiful care package from our amazing @FLOTUS! These fresh veggies from the White House Kitchen Garden were such a wonderfuland delicioussurprise. Love you, Jill! To which, Jill, who shares her husbands gentle corniness, responded, Food is love.

One can read this as a clear statement on Bidens part, just as Obamas choice to build the garden was a clearstatement. The former first lady broke ground on the garden in 2009, and at the time the symbolism wasnt subtle: She believed buying local and organically grown food, with less of a reliance on industrialfarming, would make for healthier Americans. To that end, the first lady chose to grow vegetables, which hadnt been done at scale at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt tended her victory garden.

It was a deeply intentional project, and Obama published a book in 2012,American Grown,in which she explained every choice made. She said she wanted it to be a learning garden, where children could plant seeds and come back and see the literal fruits of their labor, as well as a statement on childhood nutrition.

As both a mother and a first lady, I was alarmed about reports of skyrocketing childhood obesity rates and the dire consequences for our childrens health, she wrote. And I hoped this garden would begin a conversation about this issuea conversation about the food we eat, the lives we lead, and how all of that affects our children.

It certainly started a conversation, though not the one she intended. The gardenand what it represented (namely, the2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act)became a conservative talking point, able to fill minutes of airtime with gleeful bad faith arguments that, looking back, seem as quaint as a tan suit. The argument at the time? Vegetables are elitist (really, it was that Obamas efforts to improve school lunches threatened industrial agricultures bottom line).

So when Trump won the election, all eyes, or at least some eyes, were on the garden. Ann Coulter even tweeted in 2016: I respectfully suggest a new name for Michelles White House vegetable garden: Putting green.

Melania Trump instead chose to quietly-ish maintain the garden that Michelle built. That equivocating mirrors the equivocating on the part of the first lady at the time, which we grew used to over the past four years. She could have easily taken steamroll to it and put upI dont knowa cold, modern sculpture garden. Would have been cool! But a lot less nutritious.

Instead Melania chose to publicly harvest the vegetables that the Obamas planted, and also add cement reinforcements to help make the garden permanent.It was one of the first things she did once at the White House in 2017. Im a big believer in healthy eatingit encourages a healthy mind and body, the first lady told the children gathered around her at the event, all from a local Boys and Girls Club.Was the event in and of itself a sign that she would try to continue Obamas school lunch efforts or otherwise promote some food policy at all? No, there was never any legislation support or lobbying or even another day in which she hosted children at the garden after that. Where there was explicit intentionality before, here therewere just some simple platitudes and a lot of guesswork. Most people focused on the$1,380 Balmain top she chose to garden in, anyway. No conservative pundits managed to rail against elitism on that one.

So now the garden is back front and center, via a care package from one first lady to another, posted for all to see on Instagram. Its a signal that Obamas efforts are at least approved of in Jills East Wing, and bodes well for the support of small farms or school lunch effortsthough what, exactly, support of the garden materially means will have to be seen.

Its something of a lovely image of continuity beyond that too: The vegetables were planted during the Trump administration. Even though Melania chose not to advertiseit, beyond that 2017 photo-call, someone kept planting.At least we have the peaceful transfer of vegetables.

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From Michelle to Melania to Jill: At Least the White House Garden Experienced a Peaceful Transfer of Power - Vanity Fair

Like many Chattanoogans, I am following the upcoming Chattanooga mayors race with interest.Do I know whom I am voting for, or have I gone through and read every one of the candidates profiles or watched any Zoom campaign forums? The answer to both of those is no, but I hope to do some homework between now and the March 2 election.The same is true for the City Council race. I live on the north end of District 2, and my wife, Laura, and I actually had two candidates stop by our house on successive cold Saturdays in January pitching their qualifications. One person came by when we were both here, and we decided we would vote for that person primarily on campaigning effort amid the cold alone.And then the next Saturday, while I was home alone, another candidate came by in a winter coat and seemed like a good candidate as well, so I am actually still debating on that race.It is always healthy when there are seemingly a lot of good candidates for a local office and who represent a variety of views, as seems to be the case in the mayors race.Part of my interest in the race this year is that this is the first mayor/City Council election I have been able to vote in since Bob Corker was elected in 2001.I moved to Cleveland in 2003 due to my wifes career as a United Methodist minister and then spent 12 years in Knoxville before moving back here in 2017 just after the last mayoral/City Council election. So, I am ready to cast my vote.And the race has seemed refreshing so far in that there are a lot of upbeat TV ads by those who have enough campaign funds to run them. And there is genuine interest in serving the community by the vast majority of the candidates.I like Tim Kellys ad about fixing a few potholes as well as mentioning his other qualifications, and I find myself trying to guess all the places where Kim White is filming her ads. I have picked out Heritage Park in East Brainerd, Coolidge Park, and the retail alley area between Market and Cherry streets. And I want to guess and say the football stadium is at Hixson High School.And who cannot like Chris Longs four-sign storyboard found along busy highway intersections about his candidacy. Or at least you can admire the creativity that went into it.All the campaigning has been upbeat so far for the mayors race, which is nice after last falls ridiculously dirty presidential and federal elections. Lets hope that continues, although who knows if the race appears tight late or goes into a runoff, and what a candidate did in 1993 suddenly comes to the forefront.Politics can obviously be dirty and brutal, and I admire anyone who sticks their neck out to run for office, although I know running is part ego buildup for many and not just all serving my community or giving back, as candidates like to always say.One time when I was living in Knoxville, I saw that former mayor candidate Ann Coulter was to be there in connection with her private consulting/planning work on the Cumberland Avenue Strip area of Knoxville by the UT campus.I contacted her about interviewing her while she was there regarding her 2005 mayor campaign against Ron Littlefield that had concluded a year or so earlier. I did end up having a nice interview with her about the Knoxville work, but she was reluctant to go back and revisit that bitter race due to the personal toll, which I understood.Like Kim White, she had also been involved with the RiverCity non-profit downtown redevelopment company. And some initially thought Ms. Coulter might become the first woman mayor, a feat Ms. White and Dr. Elenora Woods are trying to accomplish.Knoxvilles last two mayors have been women. I occasionally covered the first one, Madeline Rogero. One time she spoke at our church and gave a nice talk about some of the citys accomplishments, many of which had already been well documented in TV and newspaper reports.I was tempted to ask her, While all of these accomplishments are nice and have been documented in the media, I was wondering what a typical day as mayor is like, or do you ever pinch yourself that you are the mayor, or the first woman mayor?The current Knoxville mayor is Indya Kincannon, whose father had been a top U.S education official.Besides electing Chattanoogas first woman mayor, some would also like to see Chattanooga elect its first Black mayor.Chattanoogas city electorate is diverse enough that both conservative-leaning and liberal-leaning candidates have been elected mayor in the recent past, even though the candidates dont represent a political party in theory.Among some of the candidates, Ms. White graduated from Hixson High not too long after I graduated from Baylor School in 1978. As someone who lived less than a mile from Hixson High growing up, I know a lot of Hixson graduates from that era have done well in their professional lives.Fellow candidate Monty Bruell was a year behind me at Baylor and was the first Black graduate of the independent school. I had an opportunity to interview him in the 1990s about the experiences.Tim Kelly graduated from Baylor in 1985, just one year ahead of current mayor Andy Berke. (And while I am on my Go Big Red kick, Jon Kinsey, the mayor from 1997-2001, graduated from Baylor in 1972.)A few years ago, I had a delightful interview with Tim Kellys mother, Betty Sue, about her memories of Girls Preparatory School classmate and 1958 May queen Grace Moore, who had been tragically killed in an automobile accident in 1960 in North Carolina. Betty Sues father had headed the Ayers auto dealership.I am sure a lot of the other candidates have interesting stories of their various school experiences and other life lessons, and I look forward to learning about them. Other mayoral candidates not yet mentioned are Monty Bell, Lon Cartwright, Christopher Dahl, DAngelo Davis, Russell Gilbert, Wade Hinton, George Ryan Love, Andrew McLaren, Erskine Oglesby, and Robert C. Wilson.Over the years, I have had opportunities to interview several Chattanooga mayors. One time I briefly talked with Rudy Olgiati, the mayor from 1951-63, over the phone.He was older by that time, but I was trying to talk to him about some piece of history and reached him down at a great-nephews house in South Carolina. He did not offer me much information, but I cherished just being able to talk with him, even though I knew he was in declining health.And in the 1990s while at the Chattanooga Free Press, I decided to do a series on former Chattanooga mayors and had nice interviews with Ralph Kelley (1963-69), Robert Kirk Walker (1971-75), and Pat Rose (1975-83).I remember Mr. Kelley proudly told me from his federal bankruptcy judge chambers how he, a white man, had tried hard to connect with the Black community and had no major racial conflicts of note while mayor in the turbulent 1960s. He had graduated from the University of Chattanooga.Mr. Walker, meanwhile, talked about his term from his law office and how he was going to finally take a day off for his birthday after a hard first month or so, and then the major race riots broke out after the cancellation of the Wilson Pickett concert. As a result, the Central High grad and father of former McCallie headmaster Kirk Walker had to work even harder trying to bring peace back to the community over several very tense days.Former Mayor Rose came over to the papers office and very amicably and in a goodwill ambassador style talked about his days in office. The former Atlantan could not have been nicer and more patient with me.Both he and Mayor Kelley had natural charisma that no doubt helped them as politicians.I also later interviewed lower-key Mayor Gene Roberts (1983-97), who was probably as responsible as any mayor for all the downtown redevelopment projects, like the Tennessee Aquarium. Of course, a lot of citizens and other civic leaders were also involved, including philanthropist Jack Lupton and future mayor Ron Littlefield (2005-13), who was head of the Chattanooga Venture non-profit planning group at the time.I have corresponded occasionally via email with former Mayor Littlefield over the years.I also talked with Jon Kinsey briefly, but about a development project after he left office. He seemed easily approachable.In 2001 when I was doing some freelance writing as a Chattanooga correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, they asked me to interview Bob Corker right after he had been elected mayor.He kindly agreed, and I went over to his office in the Volunteer Building a day or two after the election and had a nice talk with him before he left on a brief vacation. I remember he kept pacing back and forth while talking to me.As someone who gets a little fidgety as well sitting for too long, I could certainly relate to that.I remember he also indirectly asked me if I was interested in applying to be his press spokesman, as I guess he had not filled that position. Being back in school and enjoying my freelance writing, I did not pursue it.I wrote my story and was surprised when I saw it after it was published. The editors had about doubled it in length with information about his past business dealings or some issues like that. I guess the editors were just trying to give a broader view of him, but I kind of felt like it was no longer my story or in the mostly upbeat tone in which I had written it.I hope Mr. Corker, a City High graduate, did not think any less of me, as I still think fondly of my visit with him, and I enjoyed following his career to the U.S. Senate afterward.And I always wondered if he ever had any meetings on Capitol Hill where he paced back and forth, too!

* * *Jcshearer2@comcast.net

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John Shearer: Random Thoughts About Mayoral Candidates And Past Mayors - The Chattanoogan

Hours after the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol claimed the lives of five people, including a Capitol police officer, an attorney representing Kyle Rittenhouse sent out an appeal.

Kyle started the process of stopping the tyranny. Others must now follow, tweeted the attorney, John M. Pierce, before making a fundraising plea. We will need resources to take our country back. Help Kyle at FreeKyleUSA.com. And stay tuned for a new organization that will help thousands more who need help like Kyle does. #USA #NeverSurrender.

The combination of legal fundraising, merchandising, and idolizing of Rittenhouse and his shootings continues to provoke a base that is already prone to advocating violence.

Rittenhouse is the Illinois teen who gained national fame and adulation among the far right when he shot three people, two fatally, at a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on August 25. He has pleaded not guilty to charges that include two counts of first-degree intentional homicide; he remains free until his trial, which is tentatively set to begin in March.

As the United States faces an unprecedented threat of far-right violence, hate groups and organizations continue to celebrate Rittenhouse as a folk hero. While the events of January 6 splintered the American political right, high-profile political figuresas well as anonymous Internet usersare united in using Rittenhouse to fundraise, recruit, and radicalize other young people.

The national spotlight on Kenosha, where a police officer was filmed shooting Jacob Blake seven times in the back on August 23, attracted a dangerous mix of groups to the responding protests and riots. In a massive failure by police and sheriffs deputies from around the state, as well as the National Guard troops stationed in downtown Kenosha, scores of heavily armed white men were allowed to patrol the crowds uncontested after curfew.

Rittenhouse, then seventeen years old, was among this volatile mix of groups coalescing in downtown Kenosha. On the night of August 25, in a flurry of terrible decisions and vile intentions, Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, thirty-six, and Anthony Huber, twenty-six, and seriously wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, also twenty-six. The assault rifle he used was not legally obtained, bought for him by a friend.

Videos of the shooting were shared widely, and far-right media personalities, sitting politicians, and even some federal law enforcement officials quickly threw support behind Rittenhouses claim that he acted in self-defense. At the same time, white supremacist groups and violent accelerationists online were celebrating Rittenhouse in memes, saying his actions were revolutionaryeven noble.

You know how we begin our rebellion? When the next Rittenhouse happens, how many brave patriots will all at once revolt? wrote one user on the far-right website thedonald.win in December 2020. We would be unstoppable if we overwhelm our opposition. Constitution-hating cops cant stop a million+ patriots if they all act in one day.

Currently out on a $2 million bond funded by close associates of President Trump, Rittenhouse has flaunted his temporary freedom. After Rittenhouses arraignment in early January, his mother drove him to a bar in Racine County in Wisconsin, where he posed for pictures wearing a FREE AS FUCK T-shirt (with the lettering of the last word partially obscured); he also joined alleged members of the white supremacist group Proud Boys in throwing up the white power OK hand sign.

Kenosha prosecutors filed a motion on January 13 barring Rittenhouse from associating with milita or known white supremacist groups. The Proud Boysvocal defenders of Rittenhousehave been tied to the breach of the United States Capitol Building on January 6, prosecutors noted in court records first reported by the Kenosha News.

While Rittenhouses lead defense attorney, Mark D. Richards, was quick to distance his client from any known hate group, online channels associated with the self-titled Western chauvinist Proud Boys celebrated the recent news. And attorney Pierce, who is representing Rittenhouse against potential civil actions, is continuing to raise funds by making inflammatory statements about the case.

In a since-deleted tweet back in early September 2020, Pierce stated that Rittenhouse was akin to the brave unknown patriot at Lexington Green who fired the Shot Heard Round The World on April 19, 1775. A Second American Revolution against Tyranny has begun. #FightBack.

In an interview from late December, Pierce and Kyle Rittenhouses mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, nodded in agreement as InfoWars anchor Owen Shroyer yelled about the deep-state criminal mafia who wants to put Rittenhouse behind bars. Shroyer and his conspiracy-theorist boss Alex Jones marched with the Proud Boys in Washington, D.C., at a rightwing rally on December 12, 2020, when attendees burned Black Lives Matter flags and banners in the streets.

Shroyer would later give a threatening speech to a MAGA crowd the night before the January 6 insurrection, saying the crooked politicians that occupy our Capitol are in fear right now and are hiding in tunnels like rats.

Pierce started his campaign for Rittenhouse under Georgia defamation attorney L. Lin Woods#FightBack Foundation Inc.a slush fundformed in August of 2020 by a rotating door of far-right lawyers and Trump allies. Pierce subsequently stepped back from involvement in Rittenhouses criminal defense amid allegations of fundraising impropriety.

Lin Wood, one of the most prominent supporters of Trumps presidential election conspiracy theories, helped fundraise for Rittenhouses $2 million bail along with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. On January 6, Wood suggested that Vice President Mike Pence be executed by firing squad for certifying the electoral college results in favor of Joe Biden. He has since been banned from Twitter. Lindell visited the White House during Trumps final days in office urging the outgoing President to invoke martial law to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

Besides lawyers Wood and Pierce, far-right media personalities including Tucker Carlson and Ann Coulter espoused their support and adoration for Rittenhouse after the shooting. Coulter went as far as saying she wanted Rittenhouse as my President.

Even sitting politicians threw their support behind Rittenhouse. In November, Representative Anthony Sabatini, Republican of Florida, tweeted, KYLE RITTENHOUSE FOR CONGRESS. And Representative Paul Gosar, Republican of Arizona, tweeted the day after the shooting that Rittenhouse was 100% justified. Gosar would go on to become a key player in the Stop the Steal movement.

Indeed, the Stop the Steal movement has been led by some of attorney Pierces closest professional friends. Before financial difficulties and substance abuse problems led him to step away from his ailing law firm Pierce-Bainbridge, he represented high-profile Trump allies like former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani and Trump advisor George Papadopoulos, who eventually received a pardon from Trump.

Rittenhouses family and attorney continue to use his popularity among the far right to fundraise, though accusations of fraud and grifting have marred the public-relations campaign that Pierce runs. Pierce maintains he is sticking around to sue anyone who has called Rittenhouse a white supremacist, including President Joe Biden. Those would be hard lawsuits to win, since the photos of Rittenhouse flashing a white power hand sign while drinking with alleged Proud Boys are now preserved on the Internet.

The Rittenhouse family, aided by Pierce, have faced continuous instances of deplatforming in their fundraising efforts. Before their SquareSpace website FreeKyleUSA.com was temporarily shut down, Rittenhouses family sold merchandise and apparel in an online store with Free Kyle as the slogan. The website is live again, though the store is no longer available.

They reportedly raked in thousands of dollars towards his legal defense fund using the web payment service DonorBox, which has been criticized in the past for providing services to hate groups. Donations apparently go into a trust controlled by Wendy Rittenhouse. DonorBox did not respond to multiple requests for comment. On the reinstated website, donations are now submitted through a PayPal link to the Kyle Rittenhouse Defense Fund.

Several other companies, including Printify, Printiful, and GoFundMe, had previously removed Rittenhouses familys products and funds from their services after receiving complaints. Before the social media app Parler was taken offline due to threats of violence posted posted by users, @FreeKyleUSA solicited donations for Rittenhouses defense.

The combination of legal fundraising, merchandising, and idolizing of Rittenhouse and his shootings continues to provoke a base that is already prone to advocating violence. The Parler accounts associated with the Proud Boys and their members regularly posted in support of Rittenhouse. On Twitter, the @FreeKyleUSA account has gained more than 1,700 followers, and a cult-like fan base. The proprietor of the account is not named.

In less-public spaces online, accelerationists and outright racists idolize Rittenhouse in memes. Telegram channels associated with the Proud Boys amplify messages such as Hail King Kyle, and Free Kyle Rittenhouse. In other far-right Telegram channels, accounts with names such as Zoomer Waffen'' share edited videos of the Rittenhouse shooting with messages like, I need a hero.

On January 7, during an appearance on an obscure live-stream show with Wendy Rittenhouse, Pierce called President-elect Joe Biden a pretender, and praised those who lost their lives during the previous days insurrection as brave souls. Rittenhouses mother nodded in agreement, adding that us patriots have to stick together, we cant back down.

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Making a Martyr Out of a Murderer - Progressive.org - Progressive.org